Chapter 9: Victory

After the incident Zhang Wuji became a bit more serious about cultivation. Most of his free time he spent on the training grounds either training solo or with targets. Occasionally he would spar with fourth level outer disciples Lin Yingjie introduced. All of them had joined after he had and were younger than him. Except the embarrassment he felt in the beginning there were no other problems. His skill in Eagle claw art grew with each day. He still daydreamed every now and then but his stubborn thoughts of revenge kept him from indulging too much. Although the black clothed man was just an illusion constructed by the formation he still held a grudge against him and swore to beat the crap out of him. Now that he had ample practice and experienced the whole thing once, he was confident that he wouldn't be as miserable as before where he was too overwhelmed by his fear of death after getting injured and forgot that it was only an illusion.

In the following days he had tried out the will power and comprehension tests. Comprehension test at the time of selection was divided into two parts, written and sword rampart. Zhang Wuji tested the sword rampart. It was a broken piece of a wall with a crack on it which according to sect higher ups was a sword streak. It did look too neat to be made by other reasons he could think of.

The previous sect leader had found this on one of his journeys and determined that this sword streak held a high level martial art in it. Depending on one's comprehension a part of the art or a watered down version of it can be gleaned off it. The higher ups tried everything but weren't able to get the complete art. So they left it here to see if someone could get anything out of it. Even if what they understood was something very low level they were taken in as first class disciples. Nobody could understand anything though. Only foundation building realm cultivators and above had understood anything from it. There was once an inner disciple that understood a very high level move. He was taken in as the personal disciple of the previous sect master and is the senior brother disciple of the current sect master. He is said to have left the sect to find a way to enter nascent soul realm and is yet to return.

'Lin Yingjie really has a story corresponding to everything and everyone in the sect.'

'I got nothing from the rampart. Atleast the will power test was not too depressing.' He crossed the passing mark with thirty six steps climbed.

Today he was going to challenge the Battle Tower again after a whole week's wait. He even trained on Sunday for this. This time he came alone. Remembering the shame he had to endure every time he lost to a junior he clenched his fists and entered the tower.

This time he wasn't distracted by the dazzling weapons and chose fists in the weapons selection. Familiar arena, familiar blue sky and familiar black clothed man. Zhang Wuji took the initiative again and clawed at the man. He felt like a tiger delivering the deciding blow and his face flushed.

He immediately shook his head mentally and controlled his thoughts.

The man dodged back and sprung forward with an uppercut. This time Zhang Wuji did not foolishly let the previous attack's momentum carry him and stepped to the right and grabbed at his neck with his left claw and plunged him to the ground.

The man pulled his body down by hooking with his right leg and freed himself and proceeded to deliver a kick to his abdomen.

Zhang Wuji rolled back away from the kick standing up in the process. He tackled the man to the ground as he was pulling his leg back. He got on top of him and brutally clawed at his neck trying to rip out his throat. The man was still disoriented from the tackle and couldn't defend right away and got his throat ripped off.

Zhang Wuji got blood all over his face and his face paled. He got off his opponent's body and retched. It smelled like blood. Tasted like blood. He was nauseated. 'They didn't have to make it this realistic right. Dayum I'm a savage' he smiled foolishly to himself after remembering it was just an illusion.

'Alright. Now what' he was back to the white space and was given options to either continue or try again later.

He came with full knowledge this time. The first floor opponent had a cultivation similar to the challenger and the level kept increasing with the floor with fourth floor opponent at three levels above the challenger. All opponents only have mastery level in their martial arts. Therefore it is easy to beat the first floor as long as one reached mastery in their martial art as the opponents are only rigid illusions. Even those with initiation in their martial arts can beat them with some effort. The fifth floor is different. If someone passes the fourth floor then a deacon with grand completion in their martial arts controls the black clothed man with cultivation of three levels, that is one whole stage, above the challenger to fight. The difficulty is increased exponentially.

As long as you win, you can challenge the next floor whenever you want without the one week gap as long as a room is available.

'Although it was an easy win the next floor isn't something I can beat. But I'd like to give it a try. It doesn't matter if I am barred for a week. It's not like I can make some drastic improvements in the next few days.'

Zhang Wuji chose to continue. He maintained his previous choices. A red light flashed and a black clothed man appeared. This time he was more careful and waited for the man to make the first move. The opponent was stronger than him so he couldn't exchange blows. He will have to dodge and counter to win this. He could unleash a barrage of blows and not give the man time to breathe but Eagle Claw art was about counters and strong blows not combo attacks and raining punches.

The man started with a few testing blows. Zhang Wuji dodged all of them. These blows did not have a large portion of the man's strength and couldn't be leveraged against him. They were quick controlled strikes and countering them is very difficult so he kept dodging and waited for an opportune moment.

It never came. For whatever reason despite having an upper hand the man never went for the finishing blow and kept playing with him, draining his stamina and finishing him off.

'Fuck! This is cheating. A human would've long gone impatient and would've become more aggressive. This level of patience is only possible in an illusion created man. And why the hell is an illusion using tactics? Or was I just unlucky? Next time I'll take the initiative.' Zhang Wuji grumbled and got out the tower.

Still he killed his target and was happy. He went to the Duck Lake to meet Lin Yingjie. Not to brag about his exploits. It was just the first floor. Although it does require celebration but not to the extent that he had to walk kilometres to tell his gang. He had to borrow the pots from him. Usually he borrowed them in the morning after Lin Yingjie is done with his cultivation but today he got caught up in last minute preparations for the tower which included deciding the pose he would make when he clears the whole tower.

After walking for a while he reached the Duck Lake. It had no ducks. There were cranes and other birds but no ducks. 'Lin Yingjie might know the story behind the name.'

The lake was almost a perfect circle with various structures build along its banks. A few metres left to the centre of the lake was a huge pavillion. The only way to reach it was by boat. Ofcourse qi condensation realm cultivators could walk on water but this lake was mainly used by the outer sect disciples.

Lin Yingjie and others were fishing on one side. It was rowdy. Not like what one would imagine fishing to be like. They frequently caught fishes which led to increased rowdiness. They released the caught fish after giving them some treat. Maybe the reason why the fish got caught despite all the ruckus. Zhang Wuji thought they were intelligent fishes, fit to be in a cultivation world.

He went over and greeted them. "Brother Zhang how was the tower." Pan Mu was the first to ask.

"If he still couldn't clear the first floor he should just quit cultivation. The proper question would be whether he could beat the second floor." Zhang Wuji was now used to Wan Lin's bluntness and didnt mind him. "The second floor opponent drained my stamina and killed me. It sucked. I'm planning to take the initiative next week."

"No need for that. The illusions tactics are randomly chosen when there is no action from the challenger to react to. You were just unlucky. Next time there is a high chance that a tactic that suits your Eagle Claw art would be chosen." Lin Yingjie said without taking his eyes off his fishing rod.

"How can you say that?"

"A long fight is energy consuming. Usually such tactics have a very low chance of happening. You were just unlucky that it countered your art perfectly."

"These things consume energy?"

"Obviously. How foolish does one have to be to think they run magically?" Wan Lin ridiculed with his ever serious face.

Zhang Wuji ignored him and asked "Why would the sect provide it for free then?"

"Nothing in the sect is for free. They take fees from us or work us to the bone. Only the first class disciples get stuff for free. I once made an enquiry in an indirect way and realised their fees is paid by us second and third class disciples. The same trend is continued even in the inner sect. Only the currency is different." Lin Yingjie scoffed.

"Wouldn't that lead to dissatisfaction in the disciples?"

"So what? Now that you know about it, are you gonna do something to change it and go against core formation realm cultivators in the sect? Or are you gonna leave? Do you think you could get the pills and all the training grounds outside the sect?"

Zhang Wuji had nothing more to say. He couldn't help but feel frustrated. He was fine with them making profit from his fees but he couldn't swallow the fact that the same fee is used to nurture first class disciples.

"Brother Zhang you never came fishing before. So what did you come here for? Did you need something." Pan Mu didn't like the mood of the discussion and asked changing the topic.

"Yeah. Brother Lin I'm here to borrow the pots."

"No need. We went and bought them for you on Sunday. They're in my room. You could collect them later."

"Alright." Zhang Wuji sat down and played with them for a while. By the time he got back to his room it was already dark.